Practising in Flow

The violinist and graduate psychologist
from Bremen, Andreas Burzik, has inte-
grated the revolutionary discoveries of the American-Hungarian researcher Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced: chik-sent-
me-hy-ee) into an innovative and extremely effective practice technique: "Practising in Flow". This makes it possible to reach consciously that blissful state with which every musician is more or less familiar: one becomes totally lost to the world while being absorbed, highly engaged and yet effortlessly involved with their instrument sunk in his playing. All steps of the activity run seamlessly into each other, all sensation of time goes. There is no room for day to day worries, everything is replaced by a deep feeling of well-being and harmony.

Andreas Burzik,

Doing and consciousness become one. Flow is the psychological term for those extraordinary experiences, which can arise not only when playing music, but in almost all activities. It is the expression of a holistic mode of operation of the brain that adjusts consciousness and enables a process by which even complex activities are carried out with a sensation of intense enjoyment and ease. In competitive sport, the discoveries of flow research have been applied for some time to exploit their creative potential for enhancing performance. The method developed by Andreas Burzik now opens up these possibilities to musicians. Since I became familiar with them,
I have been integrating them into the "New Dutch School" as a central element.